


An Evening Gone Wrong

by maigonokaze



Category: The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: Crime, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot, taking care of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 17:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4531263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maigonokaze/pseuds/maigonokaze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a night out with friends, Stef and Lena are mugged on their way to their car. But when the criminals realize one of their victims is a cop, a simple mugging turns into something much more dangerous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Evening Gone Wrong

The alley three blocks from the bar had been the only parking left open when Stef and Lena arrived to meet a few other couples for drinks earlier that evening. At 8pm, it was still lit by the setting sun, and lines of cars filled both sides of the narrow street. But they had spent longer than planned at the bar, where Lena joined their friends in more than a few bottles of wine and Stef nursed one glass of wine and several coffees through the evening. When they left for home at 1am, the alley was quiet and dark, and their car much farther off the main road than it had seemed in daylight. Stef heard movement behind the dumpster a split second before the figures emerged. They appeared as little more than pale wraiths, their faces drawn and teeth cracked from drug use. Three pairs of sunken eyes glowed with the wild self-assuredness of adolescence. Lena halted abruptly as she spotted them, her shoulder slamming into Stef's chest as she followed half a step behind.

The shortest of the group stepped forward, raising the pistol in his hand to gesture toward Stef and Lena. "Give us your purses," he rasped.

Lena shrugged her purse off her shoulder and tossed it to the ground at his feet. Muggings were not uncommon in any city and San Diego was no exception. The rules were simple: give them what they want and walk away. At her side, Stef removed her purse as well. She stepped forward, casually positioning herself between Lena and the gunman as she threw it to the boy on the left. His hands flashed forward to catch it in mid-air and his hoodie sleeves rode up to reveal a spider web tattoo that wrapped both wrists.

"Car keys?" A jerk of the head indicated their Prius.

"In my purse," Lena answered. Her palms itched with the need to reach for Stef, but she forced herself to hold a relaxed posture.

The boy to the right of the gunman broke off from his friends, circling around the side of the alley to block the path back toward the main street. Stef's gaze stayed focused on the gun, and she tensed as the young man passed beyond the edges of her vision. She felt Lena twist to watch the teenager behind them.

"Jewelry."

Stef jolted, the sound much closer than she had anticipated. Her eyes jerked away from the gunman for an instant to see the teenager standing only a few feet away. At this distance, she could see better even in the dim light. His face was bruised and a brutal-looking knot midway up his nose indicated a recent break. He was younger than she expected; his voice still held the rough, high-pitched edges of puberty.

Her momentary appraisal of the boy set the gunman on edge. "Y'heard him," he said, his finger twitching on the side of the trigger guard.

Lena reached for the clasp of her necklace; her hands shook as she fumbled to open it. The kids had surprised her with the gift last Mother's Day; although Lena was sure Stef had a hand in it as well. It was just a bit too well planned to be the work of her children, who tended more toward gifts that, while thoughtful, could be purchased at the last minute. Five gold figures embedded with small chips of the kids' birthstones danced along a delicate chain. Lena fought to swallow past the lump that welled in her throat.

Stef watched Lena struggle both with the clasp of her necklace and with the idea of handing it over to the muggers. She turned toward her wife, fighting to ignore the cold that crept up her spine as she turned her back to the gunman. "Here, love," she offered, keeping her voice low as her fingers brushed Lena's and stilled her frantic scramble. "We'll get it back," she assured Lena. "Or we'll get you another."

Lena shivered as Stef gently swept her hair to the side and opened the clasp. The necklace fell into Lena's hand. The gold was warm where it had lain against her chest and Lena wanted nothing more than to curl her fingers around it. Instead she found herself reaching out and dropping it into the waiting hands of a boy who couldn't be much older than Jude.

After taking Lena's necklace, the boy turned to Stef and his eyes dropped pointedly to her watch. Stef glanced back toward the gunman and was relieved to see he had not moved while her attention was on Lena, although the young man with the spider web tattoos had opened her purse and was beginning to rifle through it. She forced back a sigh as she slipped the watch off her wrist and passed it to the kid. "Are we done?" she asked, unable to keep the bite out of her tone.

The gunman stepped forward, allowing Stef a slightly better view of his face as he moved out of the shadows. He was older than the others, although not by much - seventeen at the most, with weathered skin and cracked lips. He drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his chest. If he was going for intimidating, it didn’t work. He barely came up to Stef’s chest and his arms were so thin she could have wrapped one hand around his biceps. But it didn’t take height or strength to be a successful mugger - only a weapon and the bravado (or stupidity) to threaten to use it. "Yeah," he answered. He still held his gun pointed at them, but he nodded his head toward the alley entrance, giving them permission to leave.

Stef reached for her wife now, her fingers desperately seeking Lena's. Lena squeezed her hand so tight that Stef could feel both their pulses pounding in sync in their fingertips. "Let's go," Lena urged. They turned together as the teenager pulled out Stef's wallet and discarded the rest of the purse onto the pavement. A weight dropped in Stef's stomach. She released Lena's hand and gently pushed Lena in front of her, her fingertips in the small of Lena's back propelling her forward. The hair at the back of her neck stood on end as she hurried, keenly aware of the gun still aimed at their backs. All they had to do was get out of the alley and back onto the main street before the boy opened her wallet.

"Fuck!" The hoarse word twisted out of the teen's mouth. "Billy, she’s a cop!"

 

* * *

 

They had barely gone twenty paces and the mouth of the alley yawned another two hundred feet ahead. For the space of a heartbeat, Stef considered that they might make a run for it. But then a bullet buried itself in the concrete wall of the apartment building that towered above the alley and Lena stumbled at the sound, her heel catching on the cracks of the uneven pavement. They couldn't run, not in heels and dresses, not with their backs exposed and a gunman behind them.

"Stop!" the young man with the gun - Billy – ordered as he ran toward them. His face contorted as the confidence of earlier dropped and was replaced by panic. His arm shook as he extended the gun; his finger curled, no longer on the trigger guard, but pressed against the trigger itself. "Don' move!"

Stef started to turn back around, her hands held out low with palms up. Billy skidded to a halt about ten feet away from them, the weapon in his trembling hand aimed straight for Stef’s head.

"No," he commanded. "Don't you fucking look at me. Get on the ground!"

Stef sought Lena’s soft, brown eyes and tried to smile. “It’ll be okay,” she mouthed. Lena did not look reassured.

“ _Now!_ " Billy barked.

Stef lowered herself to her knees; loose pebbles dug into her skin. “Hey, guys,” she said, making sure to keep a calm, even tone. “I’m not on duty. You’ve got our purses and our jewelry and the car. Just let us go and everything will be fine.”

“Shut up,” Billy snapped. “P-put your hands on your head.” Stef grimaced, but she raised her hands and laced her fingers behind her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lena cross her arms tight across her chest as she clenched her fingers around her arms, nails digging in almost enough to draw blood.

"She's already seen us," the younger boy gasped, his voice childlike with fear. "Don't they like train cops to be able to identify people and shit?"

“Fuck, fuck, _fuck_ ,” Billy vented. Stef could hear him pacing directly behind her. “I just need to think. Goddamnit, why’d it have to be a fucking cop?”

“If you shoot her, she can’t tell her cop friends about us.” another voice piped in – not the young kid, the teenager with the tattoos on his wrist. A muscle jumped along Stef’s jaw.

“Don’t you dare.” Lena’s usually quiet voice reverberated in the still alley, her tone shivering with steel and ice. She stepped out of Stef’s line of sight and positioned herself between Stef and the gun in Billy’s hand.

A wave of fear coursed up Stef’s spine. “Lena, don’t,” she pleaded, twisting around to look at Lena. Her heart stopped at the sight of Lena standing firm and solid with a pistol pointed at her chest. “Please, my…” Stef swallowed the last word; she couldn’t risk finding out if the boys were homophobes as well as criminals.

“You don’t need to become murderers,” Lena insisted. “You can walk away from this.”

“Bullshit,” spat Billy.  

“We won’t go to the police,” Lena promised. “Just take what you need and leave us be.”

He lashed out, the pistol clenched in his fist as he punched her. Lena staggered backward, tripping over Stef’s legs in the process.  Stef whirled around, preparing to jump to her feet.

But before she could stand, Billy had shoved Lena to the ground and crouched over her with the mouth of his pistol pressed against her forehead. A small, tight noise emerged from Lena – a choked off whimper or cry of protest, Stef wasn’t sure which. “Don’t _lie_ to me,” he hissed. The other boys stood back, watching over his shoulder.

“Let her go,” Stef snarled. “If you have a problem with me being a cop, she doesn’t need to be a part of this.” He didn’t respond, but his finger caressed the trigger. Lena stiffened, every muscle tense and alert.

Stef gritted her teeth as her heart jumped into her throat. She knelt a few feet back from Billy and Lena, holding her hands out to show she meant no harm. “Look, Billy,” she tried again, her tone now conciliatory, “there is nothing for you to be afraid of here. I’m not a threat to you.” _Stay calm. De-escalate the situation. Don’t upset the twitchy addict with the gun._

He didn’t relax or shift his aim, but he did turn to look at her. “You want me to just trust that? You think I’m some sort of idiot?”

“No.” Stef knew she should be making eye-contact with him, that that would help establish his trust. But she could not stop her eyes from dropping to Lena’s face, to her closed eyes and frozen features. She could not stop herself from seeing that Lena’s chest lay deathly still or hearing the way she held her breath and only sucked in shallow gasps of air when she absolutely had to. She could not fail to see the metal pressed against Lena’s smooth skin, creating a raised circle that would almost certainly leave a vicious bruise. “No,” she said softly. “I know you have no reason to trust me. But all I want is for my- my friend and I to get home safely tonight. I don’t care about anything else." Her voice cracked, "I just want us to live. Can you believe that?”

“Right,” he scoffed. But he sat back, straightening and easing the gun away from Lena. It was still pointed at her, but no longer crushed against her forehead. Lena sucked in a deep breath and her eyes slid over to meet Stef’s. “You’re really going to just walk away and not report us to the cops?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Stef lied without hesitation. “I will forget I ever saw you, I swear."

He paused. He glanced over his shoulder at the other two boys. The younger one fiddled with Stef’s watch, twisting it nervously in his hands. The other - the one who had suggested shooting her - stood stiff and anxious.

“Billy,” Stef called his attention back to her. “If you kill us, the police will never stop looking for you. But if you let us go, nobody ever needs to know about tonight.” He seemed to waver for an instant and Stef pressed her advantage. “Look, the gun went off a minute ago when we were leaving. Somebody from one of these apartments probably called the police. You don’t want to be here if they come, do you?”  

“She’s got a point,” the kid suggested. “If someone heard that and called the cops, they could be here any minute.”

Billy nodded. “What’d you think?” he asked the other teenager.

The boy shrugged. “We’ve gotta do something,” he said. “Shoot them or let them go. Can’t stand here all night talking about it.”

Billy stood. His gun shifted from Lena to Stef. Stef never thought she would find herself relieved to have a gun aimed at her from point blank range, but the tightness in her chest loosened and she took the first full breath she had in minutes.

“Lay down on the ground,” Billy said. The gun followed her every movement as Stef placed her hands on the ground and slowly dropped until her chest touched the pavement. The rough surface felt  wet and slick under her hands and smelled of oil.

“Hands out,” he ordered. Stef obeyed, reluctantly stretching her arms out to her side. Her face was mere inches off the ground now and the full city smell of gas and alcohol and sewage assaulted her nose. “I don’t want you to try to follow us, got it?”

“We won’t,” Stef answered. She couldn’t see anything but the dark pavement beneath her. She listened, waiting to hear the boys retreat. Instead, a burst of pain erupted at the back of her skull as Billy slammed the butt of the gun into her head. The force propelled her forward, slamming her face into the ground. Stef grunted and her fingers curled against the pavement as she fought the urge to whip around and fight back.

“Did that knock her out?” the younger boy asked.

“Don’t think so.” This time Stef heard the motion as Billy drew his arm back again. When he struck her the second time, Stef forced herself to go limp. “That did it, I think.” He kicked his foot against her ribcage, watching for any signs of movement.

Stef held her breath and lay still.

“Now we know she can’t follow us. C’mon, grab their stuff and lets get out of here.” Two pairs of footsteps darted off toward Stef and Lena’s car. “You stay put,” Billy growled at Lena. “When your friend wakes up, get out of here. And remember - no cops. We’ve got your addresses from your driver's licenses', so if any cops start asking around about tonight, we’ll know where to find you.”

There was no answer and Stef was afraid to open her eyes and chance him seeing that she was still conscious. She assumed Lena nodded in affirmation, though, as Billy turned and walked away.

Stef waited. She heard the faint hum as the electric motor clicked on and then the crunch of tires over cracked and loose pavement.

 

* * *

 

“Stef.” Lena’s quiet whisper filled the silence as the car pulled out of the alley. “They’re gone.” Lena held her breath, hoping that she was right in guessing that Stef was still conscious and not seriously injured by the blows to her head.

Stef rolled onto her side to face Lena. She reached out with one hand and Lena took it, their fingers clutching at one another for comfort. "You're alright, my love?" Stef asked.

Lena sat, not releasing her grip on Stef's hand. Her thumb rubbed small, soothing circles against Stef's skin. "Yes," she replied. "Are you?" Her free hand brushed the back of Stef’s head and she discovered warm, wet hair.

Stef winced, but quickly forced a smile that did not reach her eyes. "I'll be fine." She started to sit, but then stopped. Her head pounded and throbbed at the movement and her stomach flipped over. "I just... need to stay here for a minute." She lay back and Lena scooted close, drawing her in to rest her head on Lena's thigh.

Lena swept the hair back from Stef's face, careful not to brush near the wound at the back of her head or the vicious scrape where her face had impacted the pavement. Stef placed her hand over Lena's, holding it still against her. She gripped Lena’s hand as her slow, steady breaths turned into ragged, hot gasps followed by wet streaks that pooled at the corners of her eyes and slid down to form a wet patch on Lena's dress. "You stepped in front of a gun, love." Her voice broke over the words. "What were you thinking?"

"They were talking about killing you, Stef. Did you really expect me to stand by and do nothing?"

_Yes! If it meant keeping you safe, that's exactly what I wanted you to do._ Stef bit back the words that hovered on the tip of her tongue. Lena had done nothing she wouldn't have done herself, were their positions reversed. "I've never been so scared in my life," Stef confessed. She felt horrible saying it. She had seen Mike in life-or-death situations on the job. When Callie and Jude first came to stay with them, she had walked into a house where their previous foster-father threatened them and Brandon with a gun. She had responded to Mariana and Jesus' car accident and, for a few horrifying seconds after seeing the Volvo, was convinced she had lost them. She'd even come close to death after being shot herself. But none of that compared to the sight of Lena, stiff and terrified and on the ground with a gun to her head. "Promise me you'll never do anything like that again? Our babies need their mama."

"They need their mom too," Lena replied, placing a finger under Stef's chin and tilting her face up to look at her. " _I_ need you. I can't lose you, honey."

Stef lifted her head from Lena's lap and pulled herself into a sitting position. She buried one hand in Lena's hair, her fingers resting in the soft spot at the nape of her neck while her thumb stroked just under the ear. She leaned forward to plant a kiss on her wife's forehead. "I would never let that happen," she murmured. Her lips moved lower, kissing a soft line down the side of Lena's face to meet her lips. "Never," she breathed. "I'm not going anywhere."

Lena's lips trembled and Stef pulled back to see the tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh, my love," Stef sighed. She dropped her head to Lena's shoulder and curled her knees up to her chest, utterly oblivious to the dirt and grime from the pavement that still clung to her body. Lena wrapped her arms around her wife and held her close.

"You have always protected our kids, our family. Protected me." Lena pressed her lips to the top of Stef's head. "Sometimes you need protecting too."

 

* * *

 

Stef wasn't sure how long they sat like that. Every beat of her pulse brought a fresh wave of pain to her head and her face felt hot and raw where it had scraped the ground. Despite the pain, she didn't want to get up. Getting up would mean leaving the warm, safe embrace of her wife's arms. But they had to leave eventually. When her back ached from sitting in the same position too long and her legs cramped and knotted, Stef finally pulled away. "We should get out of here," she said.

Lena nodded and got to her feet. She looked around, taking in the still-empty alley. "I thought the police would have come by now," she remarked as she helped Stef stand.

Once on her feet, Stef wavered, her head pounding as though it would split open. Nausea rose in her throat. She leaned against Lena, one arm thrown over her wife's shoulders. "Nobody calls the police just because of a gunshot. Everyone assumes somebody else has already called or that it's not their business. Once we get to the street we can find someone with a phone. Or the bars are probably still open."

They moved slowly, Stef's jaw set against the pain. At this time of night, the streets were deserted, so they headed back toward the bar they had been in earlier. When they reached the block with all the bars, Stef slowed. The heavy music that spilled out onto the streets set her teeth on edge. She didn’t even need to say anything. Lena noticed the falter in her step and the way she squinted against the bright lights. Lena led her to a bench near a bus stop; within eyeshot of the cluster of bars. "I'm fine," Stef insisted. "Let’s go find a phone."

"You're not fine," Lena retorted. She had seen enough kids with concussions on the sports teams at Anchor Beach to recognize the symptoms. "Just sit here for a minute." She could see Stef about to refuse and cut her off: "For me?"

Stef collapsed into the cold metal. Now that they were out on the main road with streetlights overhead, Lena was able to take a good look at her. A mess of angry red scrapes embedded with dirt sprawled across Stef's chin and the left side of her face. Stef felt Lena's eyes on her and looked up, meeting Lena's gaze with uneven pupils and unfocused eyes.

As Lena regarded her with warm, worried eyes, Stef returned the examination. There was no bruise visible yet but, if the swelling that spread down Lena's face from her temple to just below her cheekbone was any indication, it would be a nasty one when it appeared.

“Let me see.” Lena gestured for Stef to turn. Stef shifted so that Lena could see the back of her head. Lena parted Stef’s hair and gently explored the soft, raised lump. The skin burned under her fingers, and a narrow, 2-inch long gash was caked with dry blood.  

“How’s it look?”

Lena dropped her hands down to squeeze Stef’s shoulders. “It’s a nasty cut, but it stopped bleeding. I’m going to go call for help, will you be alright waiting here?” She didn’t want to leave Stef. The last thing she wanted right now was to be alone, or to leave Stef alone. But the throbbing music that pulsed from the nightclubs made _her_ head ache, she couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Stef's.

Stef shook her head to say that no, she would come with Lena. But even that motion made her feel sick to her stomach. “Come right back.”

“I will.” Lena squeezed her wife’s hand before leaving her. She crossed the street, heading for the closest bar, halfway down the block.

 

* * *

 

Stef half-hoped that Mike was on duty tonight, but he had switched back to day shift a few weeks ago. The two officers that responded she somewhat recognized, but they were not people she knew well. They were professional and courteous in taking Stef and Lena’s statements and documenting their injuries. When they finished, it was 3am and Stef passed on the offer for a ride to the hospital - by the time she sat in a waiting room to have her head looked at, she would have been better off going home and calling her regular doctor in the morning.  So Stef and Lena slid into the back of the cruiser for the ride home. 

As they pulled up in front of the house, the first thing they noticed was that virtually every light in their home was turned on. Lena groaned. “I think the kids noticed we didn’t come home,” she said.

“Do you want us to walk you up?” one of the officers offered.

“No, we’ve got it from here,” Stef replied. “Thanks for the lift.”

It was actually a good thing the kids were awake, as Stef realized walking up the path that neither of them had house keys. But obviously someone had seen the police car pull in; the door opened as they walked up the path.

“Hi babies,” Stef greeted, hugging each one in turn. “What are you all doing up?” Lena watched her with concern, noticing how Stef shifted around to hug each of the kids without turning her back to any of them; she didn’t want them to see the blood that still matted her hair.

“Jude woke up and went to talk to you about something,” Jesus said. “But when you weren’t there, he woke up Callie. And Mariana heard them talking-“

“And then everybody was awake. I see.” Lena shook her head and moved toward the kitchen. Her little flock of ducklings dutifully followed; Stef brought up the rear.

“What happened to you.” It should have been a question, but Callie’s deadpan tone made it a statement.

“You know we were going out with friends tonight. When we left the bar, Mama and I were mugged and the car was stolen,” Stef answered. She leaned against the counter next to the sink, her hands gripping the smooth, white surface. “But we’re both okay.”

“You don’t look okay,” Mariana said. Lena reached for her youngest daughter and pulled her in for a hug.

“Mom’s got a bit of a concussion, so we’ll all need to keep the volume down for a couple days and see how she’s doing,” Lena told them as she walked around the kitchen table to flip off some of the light switches, dimming the area without turning things off completely.

“I thought muggers just took your stuff and went away?” Jesus asked, eying the swelling on Lena’s face and the road rash on Stef’s.

“That’s usually right,” Stef said. “If you ever get mugged, you just give them what they ask for and then leave.”

“So?” Brandon returned to Jesus’ point. “What went wrong?”

Lena looked at Stef. “Well, they realized Mom was a police officer and got scared. And when people are scared, they sometimes panic and lash out at other people.” That was as close as she wanted to come to telling the kids the terrifying truth of what happened.

“But you arrested them, right?” Jude asked Stef.

“Well, no,” Stef answered. “I only have my handcuffs and gun when I’m working. But we reported them to the police, so when we find them, they’re going to go to jail.”

“What about getting the car back?” Marianna asked.

“We’ll have to make do with one car again for a little while,” Lena said. “How about we let Mom go get showered and ready for bed and I can sit with you all and talk for a little while?” Lena was absolutely exhausted. But she also knew that this was scary for the kids to have their moms come home bloody and bruised in the middle of the night. They needed the opportunity to ask whatever questions were on their minds. And it would give Stef the chance to get cleaned up.

Stef shot her a look of gratitude as Lena herded the kids into the living room.

 

* * *

 

Up in their bathroom, Stef let the water pour over her to rinse the blood out of her hair and the dirt off her body. She wished it would wash away the images that played behind her eyelids as well. She could not clear her thoughts of the sight of Lena held at gunpoint. She could not stop considering the what ifs, all the horrible ways tonight could have gone differently.

She could not stop thinking that it was, in some way, her fault. Not that they were mugged - that was a random crime that would have happened to anyone who walked through that alley. But everything that came after - the violence, the threats, the danger to her life and to Lena’s - that happened because of her. Because she was a cop.

Stef shut off the water. She stood stock-still for a moment, letting the water run off of her. Then she stepped out without even bothering to reach for a towel. Water pooled under her as she dug through the bathroom drawers in search of Tylenol and Neosporin. She tossed two pills back, hoping that would do something to calm the throbbing in her head. Tending to the scrapes on her face was easy enough, but Stef was sure she probably got more Neosporin in her hair than anything else when she reached back to find the cut from where the butt of Billy’s gun collided with her head.

A trail of wet footsteps followed her out into the master bedroom. Usually Stef brought her clothes into the bathroom to change - at this age, the kids theoretically understood the concept of a closed door, but that was never a guarantee they would respect it. But tonight she paid no more thought to her nakedness than she did to the water dripping from her hair and body. She went to the closet. Almost of their own accord, her hands reached up, typing in the code from muscle memory.

“What are you doing?”

Stef turned around, her gun in one hand and the magazine in the other. “It was still loaded when I put it away this afternoon.” She hadn’t actually been sure what she was doing until Lena asked and then she realized exactly what it was. She did not want to spend the night with a loaded gun in their bedroom, not after seeing one pressed to her wife’s head. “I didn’t want to sleep tonight without knowing it was empty and locked up. I know- I know you don’t like having it here and after tonight, I just wanted to be sure...”

Lena’s heart twisted. “Stef.”

“I know.” Stef pressed her lips together in a thin attempt at a reassuring smile. She pushed the empty gun back into the right half of the safe and slid the magazine up on top of the spares piled on the left.

Lena walked up behind her and wrapped her arms around Stef’s waist as Stef pushed the safe closed. It clicked solidly in place. Lena rested her chin on Stef’s shoulder, breathing in the scent of wet hair and shampoo. “I am scared,” she confessed. “But not because you keep your gun in our bedroom. It’s the best place in the house for it and I know you always have it locked away. I’m scared because tonight I saw you on your knees with a _gun_ to your head. That is not something I ever wanted to see in my life, and something I never want to see again - although I’m sure I will every time I close my eyes.”

Stef hugged Lena's arms to her chest, her hands covering Lena’s and holding them tight against her bare skin. She knew what Lena meant. She was certain that for the foreseeable future she would have a similar vision every time she closed her eyes. "You talked to the kids?” she asked, resting her cheek against Lena’s.

Lena nodded. “They're scared. They waited a long time for us to get home and they couldn’t reach us on the phone.”

“Poor babies.” Stef pulled away from Lena and shrugged into her pajamas. “I should go talk with them too.”

Lena caught her hand. “I already sent them back to bed. It’s the middle of the night; we can talk with them more in the morning.” Stef sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m going to wake you up every hour,” Lena said. “so we should probably try to get what sleep we can.”

“Want to make sure I still remember my name?” Stef asked.

Lena nodded. She stripped off her dress and disappeared into the bathroom. When the sound of the water started, Stef sighed and crawled over onto her side of the bed. She curled on her side with her face toward the wall.

The split between the mattresses meant that she didn’t feel Lena come to bed until Lena scooted onto her side of the bed. Lena’s arm wrapped around Stef’s middle and tugged gently.

"C'mere, woman," Lena urged. She needed to hold Stef in her arms tonight, needed to feel the solid warmth of her body and the steady rise and fall of her chest. She didn't think she could sleep without that physical reminder that Stef was here, that at she was alive, that the muggers with their gun had not taken Stef away from her.

Stef obliged, sliding backward into her wife’s embrace. Lena’s breath flowed soft and wet against the back of her neck. Stef inhaled the comforting scent of the cocoa butter lotion Lena put on after her shower. She half-turned and Lena lifted her head up just enough to meet Stef’s lips. “Goodnight, love," Stef murmured.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Fosters or profit in any way from writing fanfiction (aside from my joy at reading people's comments, ofc)


End file.
